Some sauces have a high fat content, e.g. pesto sauce normally has a fat content of about 38-40%. As is well known, there is a desire among consumers to reduce their fat intake both for health reasons and for their appearance.
Conventional means of producing commercially practical and cost effective shelf stable reduced fat culinary products typically involve substitution of some of the fat by low cost "filler" ingredients such as water together with the addition of ingredients which help to maintain the textural properties, the functionality and the quality of the corresponding "full-fat" product. Conventional means of producing commercially practical and cost effective non-shelf stable reduced fat culinary products, e.g. refrigerated products, involve either the addition of preservatives, the use of thermal processing treatments or aseptic/clean processing and packaging, or combinations of these techniques.
It is nowadays generally accepted that the use of artificial preservatives is not desired by consumers who, these days, tend to prefer "natural" products. However, in order to achieve a stable refrigerated reduced fat culinary product without adding preservatives, it is usually necessary to use thermal processing methods. The problem with using thermal processing is that the severity of thermal treatment and packaging methods required to achieve enhanced stability have a detrimental effect on the product quality and cost.